Working Families Party members watch Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s video speech to the party’s 2014 political convention in Albany on Saturday. HANS PENNINK/AP

Vow to oust Republicans could hurt his agenda

Joseph Spector and Jon Campbell

Albany Bureau http://rochesterdemocrat.ny.newsmemory.com/

ALBANY — Gov. An­drew Cuomo has touted a bipartisan style of gov­erning, but his decision to back the Working Families Party’s agenda and seek to flip control of the state Senate will likely leave issues such as passing a women’s equality agenda and in­creasing the minimum wage unfinished until next year. Cuomo agreed Satur­day to seek to oust Re­publicans and a five­member Democratic conference from power in the November elec­tions in exchange for the third party’s support. He said he would push for their shared agenda items next year if he’s successful. The current legislative session runs until June 19. “This is about elect­ing people who support an agenda. I also will op­pose Democrats who have opposed the things that we’ve tried to pass,” Cuomo told reporters Sunday. Cuomo’s stance will upend a legislative ses­sion that appeared to be headed toward a stale­mate on many of the Democratic governor’s priorities. Senate Re­publican Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau Coun­ty, doubted any major, unresolved issues will be settled before the ses­sion ends.

“Now we have Gover­nor Cuomo, who on one hand (has) commercials saying how great it is Re­publicans and Demo­crats are working to­gether — four on-time budgets, cutting taxes, creating jobs,” Skelos told reporters. “And then you have another Andrew Cuomo — maybe it’s a different middle initial — who is basically kowtowing to the most extreme liberal communist ‘Working Families Party’, saying that bipartisan­ship doesn’t work in Al­bany and we should go back to the days of dys­function, deficits, over­spending, over-taxation.”

Republicans opposed the so-called Dream Act that would provide tuition assistance to immigrants in the country illegally. They also opposed public financing and a part of the women’s equality agenda that would strengthen abortion rights. As part of the agree­ment with the small but influential Working Fam­ilies Party, Cuomo said he would seek to increase the state’s minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. The pro­posal would also index fu­ture minimum wage in­creases to inflation and al­low localities to raise it up to 30 percent higher than the statewide wage in areas with high cost of liv­ing.

In February, Gov. An­drew Cuomo said it would be a chaotic situation to let local governments set their own minimum wage. But he said Sunday that the proposal he now sup­ports would be limited in scope. Senate Democrats on Monday basked in their newfound relationship with Cuomo. Since taking office in 2011, Cuomo has praised his working rela­tionship with Republi­cans, who have had con­trol in the Senate. Last year, Republicans teamed up with five-member In­dependent Democratic Conference to form a co­alition majority. “I think the governor made it clear that he will be supporting a Senate Democratic majority be­cause he understands that so many of the initiatives he’s put forward have been thwarted because of the leadership composi­tion now,” said Senate Democratic Leader An­drea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers.

Business groups and Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino ripped Cuomo’s agree­ment with the labor­backed group, which is largely based in New York City. They said they are concerned it would hurt the state’s economy, par­ticularly upstate. Senate Democrats are largely from the New York City area. “This weekend, Gover­nor Cuomo sent a regres­sive message to both small business and tax­payers,” said Mike Du­rant, state director of the National Federation of In­dependent Business. “The governor is directly threatening the viability of Main Street solely for personal political gain.”

Astorino, the West­chester County execu­tive, said Cuomo “sold out New Yorkers in exchange for political support from a fringe third-party founded by ACORN.” Astorino said in an in­terview with Gannett’s Al­bany Bureau that Cuomo should reveal the details of his agreement with the Working Families Party.

“I think it’s imperative for Andrew Cuomo to re­veal the deal. The people of the state have a right to know what he sold them out for,” Astorino said.

Karen Scharff, execu­tive director of Citizen Action and a co-chair of the Working Families Par­ty, wouldn’t put a number on how much Cuomo would help raise for the Senate campaigns. Cuomo beat Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham Uni­versity law professor, for the Working Families nod. She said she hasn’t decide whether to primary Cuo­mo on the Democratic line, calling him “untrust­worthy.”

Bill Samuels, a wealthy Democratic activist, said Monday he won’t run for lieutenant governor in a Democratic primary against Cuomo’s pick, for­mer western New York Rep. Kathy Hochul. He said the decision comes after Cuomo agreed to support the agenda of the Working Families Party.

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